Hacker News Reader

almoston Ask HN: How were video games from the 90s so efficient?

Fabien's The Game Engine Black Book Doom is so good if you're interested in how how it was possible to do something like Doom on the hardware of the time.

https://fabiensanglard.net/gebbdoom/

He also wrote one for Wolfenstein which is good as well.

almoston Launch HN: Hedgehog (YC S21) – Cryptocurrency Portfolio Manager

But it’s not just a matter of “no done yet” is it? Adding an oracle removes any “benefits” of smart contracts and puts you right back where you were with just regular contracts (but this time done badly and with bugs by incompetent bullshitters)

The fact that you justify your product with a use case which does not work and can not work is very telling. But I’m sure as a strategy it’s working very well for you.

almoston Stage 3 Proposal: Array.prototype.at

It’s not adding negative indexes, a negative number will index from the end.

So [0, 1, 2, 3].at(-2) === 2

almoston The Complete Hypercard Handbook (1988)

What I wouldn’t have given for a copy of this back then!

The samples that came with HyperCard where good enough though :)

almoston What is an NFT from an artist’s perspective?

It's amazing the absolute bullshit people will force themselves to believe when their might be some money in it for them.

All these articles gloss over the technical side (which is really not complicated, because there's very little THERE). And gloss over the demand side (sure, people want to "own" the art even when "own" means absoluely nothing in that context). I can only assume that on the demand side there's a mixture of stupid money ("I don't know what this is but it seems like it might be the next big thing so I'm buying") and people working one of various angles.

At least some artists are getting paid stupid amounts of money, if someone's got to get a windfall it might as well be them. But let's not pretend thing actually makes sense as an overall thing.

almoston Nvidia Limits RTX 3060 Hash Rate

Probably not the main reason and may not even be a reason. But this seems like it would work as a clever way not to have the market flooded with older (but still very capable) graphics cards once the value of them in a mining rig stops making sense.

almoston Web Scraping 101 with Python

I've found that a lot of the time that's not needed. Often you'll find the data as a JSON blob in the page and can just read it directly from there. Or find that there's an API endpoint that the javascript reads.

almoston Ask HN: Team fun event ideas during WFH?

Thanks for posting that! https://LiveVideoEscapeRooms.com is my site, part of my attempt to help the customers for my startup (A SaaS product for Escape Rooms) weather the pandemic. Online Escape Rooms are really a lot of fun, it's so cool to see all the creativity in the industry being channeled into crazy online games (many of theme featuring live video links to the escape rooms, but some also hosted completely online).

I've since also pivoted my startup and created a new product (https://TelescapeLive.com/) for escape rooms moving to online!

almoston Show HN: Django and React SaaS boilerplate tutorial

Serverless type things are totally fine if you’re into that. But it can be nice to just have a simple backend running on a server. No different services to think about, just simple code. For me Django is the way to go because I’ve been using it for years, for others it might be some other language/framework. You should most definitely continue to do you, but for me that’s what works.

almoston The cost of fixed-line broadband in 206 countries

There was an article yesterday comparing broadband speeds in the US and Europe: https://fairinternetreport.com/research/usa-vs-europe-intern...

almoston SaaS Financial Model

Pity they no information at all on the site. Nothing about who they are. Nothing about what it costs. Not even a privacy policy :/

almoston Invite Rick to Rick Roll Your Zoom Calls

Well I don't know what I was expecting

almoston Ask HN: Companies of one, what is your tech stack?

Web bits: Python 3 and Django with Celery running on Heroku. Postgres (source of truth) and Redis (caching and queues). S3 for storage. Front end is HTML and basic JavaScript. Pretty happy with it, it's really quick to make new stuff in. Starting to consider adding types to some bits Python with mypy as it's got to a size where types would be useful.

App: React Native with Redux. Flow for types (would use TypeScript if starting again today). RN is a pain but seems better than the alternatives for what I need.

That all allowed me to get a prototype together at the start and to iterate very quickly which was essential for making the whole thing happen at all. Some of that was the technology itself but a lot of it was just that I was very familiar with it.

almoston The escape-room games industry is booming

DISCLAIMER: My own startup, Buzzshot (https://buzzshot.co), makes an Escape Room software SaaS product. I've been running it for 2 years and its been my full time gig for about 6 months

The article doesn't talk about it much but there's also a booming support industry that's built up around Escape Rooms. From prop makers, puzzle desingers, suppliers of full turn key rooms.

It's a fascinating industry to work in. Having spoken to every customer on the phone (highly recommended) there's such a range of people starting Escape Rooms from people starting their first ever business to people with lots of experience in related (or less related) areas. The amount of different skills that go into making these things is amazing. Having multiple rooms seems important to growing revenue, since it's the only practical way to get return customers. A lot of people of expanding to multiple locations as well as a way of reusing work.

A cool thing happening right now in the UK is two rooms are openning using licensed IP. There's a Dr Who one which sounds really exciting and one based on the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock show (disclaimer no 2, they're a customer of mine which I'm very excited about)

They're a whole lot of fun to play as well :)

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (May 2017)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

A few of the technologies I work with:

React Native: I've been working with React Native since the day it was released and it's now my favourite environment for building cross platform mobile apps. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/react-native/

D3.JS: My first choice for building rich interactive web based data visualisations. See some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/d3/

Python and Django: I've been using Django for close to a decade now and it's still often my first choice for web apps and APIs. https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/python/

Arduino/Hardware: I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development and I work with some great people who can build some amazing machines. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/arduino/

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Automated snare drum made to the order of Aphex Twin (2014)

If you like this you might also like http://FelixsMachines.com by my friend Felix. From a good few years before this one :)

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (April 2017)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

A few of the technolgies I work with: React Native: I've been working with React Native since the day it was released and it's now my favourite enviroment for building cross platform mobile apps. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/react-native/

D3.JS: My first choice for building rich interative web based data visualisations. See some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/d3/

Python and Django: I've been using Django for close to a decade now and it's still often my first choice for web apps and APIs. https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/python/

Arduino/Hardware: I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development and I work with some great people who can build some amazing machhines. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/arduino/

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Hash indexes are faster than btree indexes?

Oh right, that's scary! In the case of corruption would the index just be rebuilt (I realise that's a big problem with big indexes) or would it just silently corrupt query output?

almoston Hash indexes are faster than btree indexes?

What does durable mean in the context of a Postgres index? I can sort of guess but from the way it's used here it seems like it has a well know definition. A quick google search (on my phone) returned this article a few times but not much to else that explains it.

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (March 2017)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

A few of the technolgies I work with:

React Native: I've been working with React Native since the day it was released and it's now my favourite enviroment for building cross platform mobile apps. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/react-native/

D3.JS: My first choice for building rich interative web based data visualisations. See some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/d3/

Python and Django: I've been using Django for close to a decade now and it's still often my first choice for web apps and APIs. https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/python/

Arduino/Hardware: I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development and I work with some great people who can build some amazing machhines. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/arduino/

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (February 2017)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

A few of the technolgies I work with:

D3.JS: My first choice for building rich interative web based data visualisations. See some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/d3/

Python and Django: I've been using Django for close to a decade now and it's still often my first choice for web apps and APIs. https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/python/

I also do hardware based projects, I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development and I work with some great people who can build some amazing machhines. See: https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/arduino/

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (January 2017)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

A few of the technolgies I work with:

D3.JS: My first choice for building rich interative web based data visualisations. See some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/d3/

Python and Django: I've been using Django for close to a decade now and it's still often my first choice for web apps and APIs. https://tomparslow.co.uk/technology/python/

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (December 2016)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

I work a lot with Python (Django) and Javascript (React, React Native, D3.JS) to build rich client browser based and mobile apps. I also do hardware based projects, I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development.

I build interactive web-based data visualisations (usually with D3.JS), there are some examples at https://tomparslow.co.uk. A visualisation I built for Pluralsight just went live at https://learn.pluralsight.com/resource/all-the-courses (I also wrote an article for them about how I built it https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/software-development/d3-tut...)

I have been working React Native quite a lot since its release last year and have a couple of apps in the app store with more coming soon.

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston [dead]

Looks like the whoishiring bot is broken! Correct link is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12846145

almoston [dead]

Looks like the whoishiring bot is broken! Correct link is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12846145

almoston [dead]

Looks like the whoishiring bot is broken! Correct link is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12846145

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (November 2016)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality. Happy to work on my own or as part of a team.

I have been working React Native quite a lot since its release last year and have a couple of apps in the app store with more coming soon.

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Web2Web: Serverless Websites Powered by Torrents and Bitcoin

There's really no need to respond so snappily to simple questions like that. Even if it were unacceptable to ask a question that could be answered by reading the source code (and I think most would say that's fine) it still wouldn't be ok to be so rude.

almoston Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (October 2016)

SEEKING WORK - Brighton, UK. London, UK. Remote.

Freelance developer based in Brighton (50 minutes from London). I am flexible, resourceful and reliable and I can help you turn your ideas into reality.

I work a lot with Python (with Django) and Javascript (with React) to build rich client browser based and mobile apps. I also do hardware based projects, I have experience with coding in Assembly and C on various micro controllers and Arduino development.

I have been working React Native quite a lot since its release last year and have a couple of apps in the app store with more coming soon.

Please get in touch!

Portfolio Website: https://tomparslow.co.uk

Geeky and More Technical Website: http://almostobsolete.net

Github: https://github.com/almost

Email: tom@tomparslow.co.uk

Phone: +44 (0) 7951261227

almoston Unlawful gun owners commit 80 percent of gun crimes

So most crimes are committed with guns stolen from or lost by the legal owners. Is that what gun rights advocates want to be saying?

Maybe it's because I'm not an American and I've never been to America but this all just seems strange.